At the outset, HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY!
One hundred issues, with so many more to come. Such an outstanding achievement and testament to the importance locals place on having a local paper. A huge “thank you” to Belinda and the team!
Question: What do Premier Steven Miles and the big supermarkets have in common?
Answer: They only care about themselves, they don’t care about you, they’re bad for cost of living and both must be held accountable for their actions.
You may have heard the premier talk about launching a parliamentary select committee inquiry into the big supermarkets. Fair enough, we all know grocery prices have gone through the roof and the cost of putting food on the table has never been higher. I and the LNP opposition, welcome the spotlight being shone on the practices of the big supermarkets.
But we don’t think such a parliamentary inquiry goes far enough.
That’s why the LNP has announced it will expand Queensland’s Cost of Living Inquiry to assess state government impacts on the kitchen table big bills and help ease the Queensland cost of living crisis.
Following CPI revelations Queensland is facing the worst cost of living pressures in the nation, the LNP has moved to put government impacts on cost of living under a microscope including electricity, transport, insurance and water.
To expand the inquiry’s scope, we will negotiate with crossbench parliamentarians, to secure their support and amend the select committee’s terms of reference.
Steven Miles announced a big supermarkets inquiry, knowing full-well he wasn’t looking at the things his government controls.
As I said, supermarkets absolutely need to be held accountable, but so does this decade-old Labor government that’s driving-up cost of living pressures on Queenslanders.
The LNP’s expansion to the Cost of Living Select Committee Terms of Inquiry include:
The impact of rising electricity prices, after Queensland experienced a 20% increase in power bills, the worst in the nation and triple the national average, with the Callide power plant being offline for nearly three years.
The impact of skyrocketing insurance prices, after Queensland experienced 18.5% increases in insurance due to the youth crime crisis and Labor’s failure to deliver flood resilience.
The impact of rising water costs, as well as a lack of water security, with the government failing to build new dams and now tearing down the Paradise Dam, with no water security plan to bring down the cost of water for growers.
The impact of increased transport costs, after Queensland experienced the biggest increases in transport costs in the nation, as a result of the government’s failure to maintain and invest in our road and rail network.
Queenslanders expect their government to do everything in its power to drive down costs, not be the reason cost of living is skyrocketing.
Labor can either support expanding the Cost of Living Inquiry or explain to Queenslanders why they’re standing in the way of cost of living relief.
Now is the time to step-up or get out of the way to allow the LNP to take action.
Refusing to listen and examine these impacts will show Labor has the wrong priorities and is more interested in grabbing another headline than delivering the cost of living relief Queenslanders urgently need.
But I don’t hold out much hope. In response to our calls to expand the inquiry, the premier said they were ‘dumb statements’.
I am appalled by these childish, ignorant and misleading comments.
Steven Miles is now a premier who laughs at crime victims and thinks Queenslanders struggling to pay their bills are ‘dumb’.
For Steven Miles to flippantly disregard Queenslanders who are struggling under soaring bills as ‘dumb’, is appalling.
Queenslanders who are choosing whether to keep the lights on or put food on the table aren’t ‘dumb’.
Queenslanders who this year can’t pay for their children’s weekend sport aren’t ‘dumb’.
Businesses who are drowning and closing their doors because of skyrocketing electricity bills aren’t ‘dumb’.
Farmers absorbing rising water and electricity costs aren’t ‘dumb’.
The family and small business who just copped a massive jump in their insurance premiums because young thugs stole their cars under Labor’s weak laws aren’t ‘dumb’.
Why wouldn’t Steven Miles want the Cost of Living Inquiry to be expanded to the things his government controls?
Stop your tricks Steven and start getting serious about your job and the things you are meant to do in Queensland’s cost of living crisis.
Because Queenslanders deserve so much better.
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